


What To Do

by questionmark007



Series: Sarah Goodkin [4]
Category: Stitchers (TV)
Genre: F/M, neither Kirsten nor Nina are actually in this but both are mentioned a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7167875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/questionmark007/pseuds/questionmark007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poor Cameron is confused, conflicted and just not having a good day. But maybe a surprise visit from his sister can help. </p>
<p>(Post season 2 finale)</p>
            </blockquote>





	What To Do

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note for those who don't know: Sarah is an OC that I created last hiatus, so don't be confused if you've never heard of her. And I might suggest reading the other stories in the Sarah series first, just to get an idea of who she is, but if you don't, it's okay, this fic will still make sense.

Cameron was having a bad day. Like a really bad day. If his day was a book, it’d be called Cameron and the terrible, no good, very bad day. And looking back, it shouldn’t’ve been a bad day, and yet, here he was, sitting on his couch, trying to drown his sorrows in beer, gourmet gelato and Doctor Who. Nina would never let him hear the end of it if she found out he was watching the newest episode without her. 

Oh god. Nina. He groaned internally, taking another large bite of gelato. She was part of why he was having such a bad day. Not because of anything she’d done, but because of what he’d done and because he didn’t know how (or if) he should ever tell her.

How do you tell your girlfriend that you kissed your coworker? The coworker that you’ve been insisting is just a coworker since you started dating? 

He kissed Kirsten. Which literally under any other circumstances would’ve made Cameron want to jump for joy. But not like this. Not when it made him a cheater. And not when Kirsten was so emotionally confused. 

Cameron did have to appreciate the irony of the role reversal: surrounding the events of a near death experience involving a Stitch, one finds out that the other quite possibly has feelings for the other. He died, Kirsten Stitched into him and discovered his feelings. Now, they kissed, Kirsten Stitched and almost died because she didn’t want to bounce. Not that he could really blame her, in hindsight. She had just begun to feel and experience emotions again and then she Stitches into a legitimately happy memory of her own. She got to feel calm and peaceful for the first time in her memory. How could anyone begrudge her wanting to stay? But he had to get her out. There were too many unknown variables and too many mysteries left to solve for her to be in the Stitch forever. 

It’d taken a while but Cameron had finally managed to talk Kirsten into bouncing. It broke his heart, seeing her so distraught after she bounced. It was like losing her mother all over again, except this time, she remembered it and knew her mother was alive. She was so emotionally raw after she bounced, that, despite how badly he wanted to, Cameron didn’t talk to her about how much she had been keeping from him the last few weeks, like the fact that he was the boy in the red hat. 

Cameron had never seen anyone pull themselves together quite like Kirsten. She discovered life-altering fact after life-altering fact after life-altering fact but just took a deep breath and kept doing what needed to be done, ignoring and trying to hide that she was wearing out and beginning to fray.

Except after this Stitch, she couldn’t hide it anymore. Under direct orders from Cameron and Maggie, Camille had taken Kirsten home where she was told to stay (and sleep) for the next twelve hours, minimum. Which meant that everyone else (sans Fisher and Maggie, who were still looking for Daniel Stinger) also had the next twelve hours off. 

Which led to Cameron, sitting on the couch, wallowing. 

He’d kissed Kirsten. He can’t even say that Kirsten kissed him, because they are both well aware that he kissed her right back. Which made him a cheater. He’d never cheated on anything in his life. (Or at least, not anything that mattered. Board games with his sister when they were growing up don’t really count). He had lived his entire adult life trying to be the best person he could be. Trying to prove that just because his father was a horrible, corrupt man, that didn’t mean Cameron was. Hell, half the reason Cameron left M.I.T to work for Stitchers was because he figured that working with the government was a good way to stay honest and show the world that he was nothing like his father. Of course, that was all up in smoke now… 

Cameron knew he was being overly dramatic, but in his defense, it’d been a rough day, it was late, and he’d probably had a little too much to drink. 

There was a knock on the door. Cameron glanced at the clock as he stood. It was well past midnight, meaning it was probably either Kirsten or Nina at the door. And in all honesty, Cameron didn’t know which he’d prefer. 

He opened the door, not bothering to look through the peephole. He saw who was on the other side and froze.

“Hey, baby brother. Miss me?” Sarah Goodkin smiled at him. Cameron felt himself sag against the door jam in relief; he really wasn’t looking forward to any conversation he could have with either Nina (how does he explain the kiss?) or Kirsten (he doesn’t even know where he’d begin with Kirsten). 

“Sarah!” Cameron smiled warmly at his sister, reaching out for a hug before she walked into the apartment, dragging her bag with her. “One of these days, you’re going to call to let me know you’re coming”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Sarah laughed, walking into the kitchen. “I am sorry I got here so late. Do you have company?”

“No,” Cameron shook his head, confused. “Why would you think I’d have company at one in the morning on a Wednesday?” 

Sarah looked at him like he was an idiot (a look he got quite frequently from her) “Only because the last time we spoke, you mentioned a girlfriend?” She plopped down at the kitchen island as Cameron bustled around to make tea. Because that’s what he did when his sister showed up unannounced: he made tea. 

“Oh…right” Cameron nodded, vaguely remembering mentioning a date he had the last time he called Sarah, about a week previous.

“‘Oh right’” she mimicked, “you know, you’d think for someone who is finally dating the love of his life, you’d be more excited.”

“Love of my life?” Cameron fidgeted uncomfortably. “Its a little early for that, don't you think? I mean it’s only been a few weeks.”

“Why are you backpedaling, Cam? The last time I was here, you all but admitted you were ass-backwards in love with her. Did something happen?” Sarah looked at him, concern. 

“What? I didn’t even know Nina the last time you were here!” Cameron asserted, his head feeling like it was going too slow for this conversation. 

“Who the hell is Nina?!” Sarah exclaimed.

“My girlfriend.” Cameron said slowly.

“What?! What about Kirsten?” Sarah looked bewildered. 

“Noth—Nothing happened to Kirsten! Kirsten is my friend and coworker. Nina is my girlfriend,” Cameron could feel his heart racing, knowing the words were only partially true. 

“No.” Sarah shook her head. 

“No? It wasn’t a question… It was a statement” Cameron frowned. 

“I don’t care what it was. I refuse to accept it. It’s not fair.” She stated simply as the water kettle turned off.

“Not fair?” Cameron almost laughed as he poured the hot water into their mugs. 

“No, it’s not fair. Not to you, or Kirsten, or Nina, or anyone else”

“How do you figure that?” He asked, genuinely interested. 

“Its not fair to date one girl while in love with another.” Sarah said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“It is if I’m trying to get over her.” Cameron said quietly, not looking his sister in the eye.

“And why in the name of James T. Kirk would you want to do that?” Sarah set her mug down and stared at him. 

“She told me not to wait for her,” he fiddled with his tea bag for something to do.

“…you told me Kirsten had a huge breakthrough and was feeling again.” Sarah spoke gently, clearly knowing that she didn’t know the whole story, but knew enough subtext from talking to him that something had happened (Kirsten discovering Cameron’s feelings and being confused) to make assuming the inevitability of Cameron and Kirsten dating safe. 

“And she is! But she’s got a lot on her plate and she’s still learning what the emotions are, so she told me not to wait around for her.” 

“And you listened? You didn’t tell you you’d figure it out together?” Sarah asked incredulous. “Wait, how long after that conversation did you start dating Nina?”  
“…a couple of days?” Cameron replied, not entirely sure of the timeline.

“Cameron.” Sarah did not look impressed. “When the girl you’re in love with puts things on pause, you do not jump into a relationship with the next girl you see.”

“That is not what happened” Cameron said angrily. “Sure, the timing was a little weird, but I like Nina. She’s funny and smart. She’s as big of a geek as I am. I mean, she works at a comic book store; she’s basically perfect for me!” 

“Then why is this the first I’m hearing about her?” Sarah asked calmly. 

“It isn’t. You’re here because I mentioned having a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, but all you said was the word ‘girlfriend’. If you like her so much, why haven’t you been gushing about her like you were with Kirsten?” Sarah looked at him, searching his face for…something. 

“I—I don’t know…” Cameron shook his head, the guilt he was feeling from earlier returning full force. “She is perfect for me but…I…I keep self-sabotaging.” Saying it out loud made him realize that that was exactly what he had been doing. It was like he was suddenly watching a montage of all the half-truths and question evading he’d done that had led to bigger issues in the relationship. Cameron had known that the cover of working for a video game company had been a bad call and flimsy at best when Kirsten had told Liam that was her job, and yet when it came time for him to tell Nina his line of work, he didn’t just say he was a research scientist for the government, which is what all of his family and friends who weren’t in the program thought, but instead he went for video games. 

“What’d you do?” Her voice was soft, and as intentionally neutral as she could make it.

“I—I—I kissed Kirsten.” It slipped out before he could stop himself. Not that he even wanted to stop himself. He needed to tell someone. Someone who would listen and wasn’t directly involved.

“Cameron” Sarah was appalled. 

“She came over. She was upset. I tried to make her feel better. She kissed me, then she left.” Cameron tried to explain. “It happened so fast.”

“Does Nina know?” Sarah took her answer from Cameron’s silence. “You need to tell Nina. Let her decide what the next move is.” 

“What? She’ll break up with me.” Cameron rocked backwards on his feet.

“Well you made the decision to kiss Kirsten, so she gets to make this decision.”

“I didn’t kiss Kirsten. She kissed me… then I may have reciprocated” Cameron ran a hand through his hair in frustration “But still, that’s not fair”

“Neither is you kissing Kirsten while dating Nina.” Sarah pointed out gently. “All three of you deserve better than that.” 

“So she breaks up with me, then what?” 

“Then you either decide to wait for Kirsten to get to a place where she’s ready for a relationship or you get over her and then get into another relationship. Because right now, Kirsten has too much of your heart for you to give it to anyone else.” Sarah smiled sadly at him as he nodded in response, knowing that no part of this was going to be easy for her younger brother. 

“I’m glad you’re here, Sarah,” Cameron said after a moment, giving her a weak smile. “I’ve missed having you around for stuff like this. Late night heart-to-hearts.” 

“I’m always here when you need me, baby brother.” She returned his smile. “I know stuff like this sucks, but all you have to do is call and I’m here.”

“I know. And I will.” He reached across the counter and took her empty mug. He put her mug, along with his own, to the sink and rinsed them out.

“Well, this little convo, and my cross-country flight, have left me exhausted, so I’m going to bed.” Sarah announced. “You’ve got the couch, so I’ll see you in the morning!” And she hopped down, off the chair, grabbed her bag and disappeared into the kitchen.

Cameron chuckled as he finished the dishes. No matter how uncomfortable the topic, talking to Sarah never failed to make Cameron feel better. Cameron knew the coming days would be filled with tough decisions, uncomfortable conversations, stressful situations, and near death experiences, but for now, he was content to put all of that aside and just be happy that Sarah was here, for however brief a time.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of different thoughts and feelings about Cameron this season and this ended up being how I worked through them... I hope y'all liked it. Feel free to find me on tumblr (I'm camerongooodkin) if y'all wanna talk about anything Stitchers related.


End file.
